BEC Helps Head Teachers & School Business Managers
Head Teachers & School Business Managers are Under Increasing Pressure to Save £s & CO2
Brighton Energy were honoured to be invited to be a ‘city expert’ at Our City, Our World – Leadership for Sustainability – Working Towards Net Zero last week at Varndean High School. The all-day event for Head Teachers and Business Managers of Brighton & Hove City Council run schools had the ambitious goals of creating a shared vision for Net Zero, encouraging leadership for sustainability and creating a culture of whole school voice and agency.
William Baldwin, Head of BHASVIC, shared his successes, challenges and lessons learnt from his experience of improving the sustainability of the college and engaging his sixth form students in the process. The afternoon allowed Heads and Business Managers to move between tables with “city experts” focussing on Energy & Water, Resources, Food, Travel and Outdoor Learning.
Brighton Energy used this unique opportunity to inform the schools that we can offer help in two ways. Firstly, we can reduce their carbon footprint and energy bills by installing a free solar PV system to produce cheap solar electricity that they can buy from us. Secondly, we have established access to a free online school-focused energy monitoring tool and energy education programme called Energy Sparks for all B&H schools. This is the national charity mentioned in the Department of Education announcement last week.
We particularly enjoyed hearing from ‘city experts’; Cat Fletcher on keeping school resources circulating in the economy, Kim Dawson, the Council’s Biodiversity Officer and Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Forest School trainer, Renzo Spano, both there to inspire the schools to get their pupils outside more.
BHCC’s Sustainability Programme Officer, Mital Patel, and Brighton & Hove Environmental Education (BHee)’s Katie Eberstein organised this inspirational event for all BHCC schools in the city along with The Living Coast and Sussex Wildlife Trust.
If you’d like to know more about Brighton Energy Co-op’s work to help schools cut carbon and save money on their energy bills you can watch Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Brighton & Hove Energy Webinar here.
